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Bitten by a deal with a disreputable contractor, Franklin County commissioners plan to adopt new rules Tuesday to forbid paying public dollars to crooks, tax dodgers and other scofflaws.

Commissioners aren't yet revamping union-wage rules, which twice prompted lawsuits from nonunion contractors. The county won both cases, but one was appealed to a higher court.

Rather, they think the new rules will fix an oversight: County rules punish those guilty of wage violations and clerical mistakes but not crimes.

The Quality Contracting Standards now will ban hiring contractors who, in the previous five years, were convicted of or investigated for serious business crimes. The list includes fraud, tax evasion, extortion, bribery, racketeering, price-fixing and bid collusion.

The resolution would affect major stockholders, officers, owners, company principals and bidders.

"This is modeled after the New York statute" aimed at keeping mobsters from gaining government contracts, Commissioner Paula Brooks said.

But the fix, she acknowledges, was inspired by W.G. Tomko.

The Pennsylvania plumber won a job at Huntington Park, the new Columbus Clippers baseball stadium, despite a history of embarrassing problems.

Tomko's owner was convicted of dodging $228,000 in taxes. Prosecutors said he had bilked a school district and laundered bills for his new mansion through his company. In addition, the company lost a suit filed by its union for shorting an Iraq War veteran's pension.

Commissioners hired Tomko after rejecting a local low bidder, which complained that it had been disqualified for petty payroll mistakes.

County rules take a hard stance on wage issues but were mute on serious crimes.

Richard J. Hobbs, executive vice president of Associated General Contractors of Ohio, called the change "a no-brainer. I think that's something that, retrospectively, we should have had in there."

He said the 2002 contracting rules, a sort of "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval," weren't tested until commissioners sought bids for the new ballpark and a Common Pleas courthouse.

"Now we find we have some errors and omissions," Hobbs said.

Commissioners are planning more projects, including a new dog shelter and, possibly, a new jail.

But the board likely won't tweak other parts of its contracting rules, including the wage stipulations that prompted lawsuits, until the Ohio Supreme Court rules on the pending appeal. The county also is waiting for ongoing state contracting and safety-ranking reforms, said county Administrator Don L. Brown.

"Rather than piecemeal it," Brown said, "we would prefer to wait until these three matters are settled."